How do you find ratings of different charities?

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Quick Answer

Charity ratings are available from Charity Navigator and CharityWatch. Charity Navigator is a non-profit organization that helps donors find reputable charities using a rating system. This group assesses more than 8,000 of America's best-known charities, as of 2015.

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Charity Navigator bases ratings on how efficiently a charity uses support, how well it sustains its programs, its level of commitment to best practices and the transparency of information. The ratings are objective, unbiased and number-based.

The group���s website, CharityNavigator.org, provides a list of the top 10 most-followed charities. For example, the charity Doctors without Borders USA occupies the No. 1 spot as of 2015, with 19,761 donors tracking the charity. It has a 5-star rating and an overall score of 93.45. The site divides scores into two sections: financial and accountability and transparency. The site also features the charity���s income statement, mission, revenues and expenses, and charities that perform similar types of work. Additionally, Charity Navigator provides links for consumers who would like to make a donation, leave a comment or add to a personalized list of potential charities they would like to help.

CharityWatch is an independent charity watch dog that provides information to consumers about how efficiently a charity uses donations to fund programs consumers may want to support. CharityWatch also acts as a consumer advocate by exposing abuses and frauds. The group's website, CharityWatch.org, has a comprehensive list of top-rated charities in a broad range of categories that include AIDS, Animal and Animal Protection, Child Protection, Hunger, Human Rights and Literacy.

Each listing hosted by CharityWatch includes a rating, contact information, a mission statement, financial documents and government funding. This site also provides donor alerts and related articles.